Library  of  the 

University  of  North  Carolina 

Endowed  by  the  Dialectic  and  Philan¬ 
thropic  Societies 


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Or  f  ,  C 
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5  *  ]  ifT 


11. 


(r^ 


Farm  Life  Conditions 
m  the  South 


Chapter  VIII 


The  Church  as  a  Country  Life 

Defense 


E.  C.  BRANSON,  PRESIDENT 
STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 
ATHENS,  GA. 


V: 


J 


THE  CREED  OF 
THE  STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 
ATHENS,  GA. 


First.  We  believe  that  education  is  a  reciprocal  union  with  so¬ 
ciety. 

Second.  We  believe  that  social  conditions  determine  all  efficient 
school  functioning. 

Third.  We  believe  that  the  output  of  the  Georgia  State  Normal 
School  should  be  teachers  who  are  aflame  with  rational  ideals  and1 
purposes;  but  who  are  also  steeped  in  reality,  to  their  very  throat- 
latches. 

Fourth.  We  believe  that  the  teachers  of  this  faculty  should  be 
intimately  acquainted  with  the  indoor  concerns  of  their  depart¬ 
ments,  intimately  acquainted  with  the  best  that  the  great  world  is 
thinking  and  doing  in  their  departments;  but  also  that  they  should 
be  accurately  schooled  in  outdoor,  economic  and  social  conditioner 
causes,  and  consequences  in  Georgia,  in  direct,  first=hand  ways. 

Fifth.  We  believe  that  the  school  is  one  of  the  mightiest  agen¬ 
cies  of  social  uplift;  and  that  no  teacher  can  help  to  make  this 
school  such  an  agency  unless  he  is  directly  and  vitally  related  to 
the  human=life  problems  of  the  community  and  the  state. 

Sixth.  We  believe  that  a  teacher  has  a  right  to  be  a  citizen  and 
a  patriot;  that  to  be  less  than  either  or  both  is  to  be  a  mere  teacher; 
and  that  a  mere  teacher  is  something  less  than  a  full  statured  man 
or  woman==a  tertium  quid,  a  third  sex,  it  may  be,  a  neuter! 

Seventh.  We  believe  that  this  school  has  betrayed  the  high  call= 
ing  whereunto  the  State  has  called  it  if  its  graduates  do  not  set 
their  hands  to  their  tasks  as  teacher=citizen  =  patriots,  as  lovers 
of  their  kind  and  their  country,  with  keen  realization  of  home 
conditions  and  needs,  with  mighty  and  mellow  sympathy  and  con- 
cern,  with  growing  love  for  community  and  county,  state  and  coun¬ 
try,  and  with  high  resolve  to  glorify  common  tasks,  common  du¬ 
ties,  and  common  relationships  in  faithful,  self=forgetful  devotion. 

Eighth.  We  believe  that  in  the  measure  in  which  we  and  they 
shall  satisfy  these  ideals  will  we  all  love  the  school  more,  our  home 
counties  more,  our  state  more,  and  serve  them  better,  both  now 
and  in  all  the  years  to  come. 

December  5th,  1911. 


38&o 


THE  CHURCH  AS  A  COUNTRY=LlFE  DEFENSE: 
A  Study  in  Home  Missions. 


(An  address  delivered  before  the  Georgia  Students 
Missionary  League,  Nov.  10,  1911.) 


E.  C.  Branson,  President 
State  Normal  School,  Athens,  Ga. 


1.  Prefatory.  When  I  think  of  the  student  body  of  the 
world,  the  prophet  Joel’s  vision  comes  into  my  mind,  and  I  see 
“Multitudes,  multitudes  in  the  Valley  of  Decision.”  Surely 
the  Day  of  the  Lord  is  near  to  the  students  of  this  Missionary 
League,  in  the  Valley  of  Decision,  very  near!  Because  these 
are  they  that  choose  for  themselves  nothing,  but  for  others 
evervthing ! 

My  prayer  is  that  the  spirit  may  be  poured  out  upon  us;  that 
our  young  men  may  see  visions  of  the  Kingdom  of  God,  en¬ 
larged  visions  of  it,  as  they  never  saw  it  before;  and  that  our 
sons  and  daughters  may  be  prophecies  and  promises  of  its  coin¬ 
ing  Then  indeed  shall  our  old  men  dream  dreams  of  The  New 

O  * 

Jerusalem  come  down  out  of  Heaven  to  dwell  upon  earth  among 
men;  and  altogether  we  shall  set  ourselves  at  last  to  the  social 
tasks  of  Christianity. 

I  have  long  had  at  hand  on  my  desk  the  diary  of  a  devout 
layman.  It  contains  nothing  but  the  words  of  the  Master  him¬ 
self.  As  I  read  and  re-read  the  words  of  Him  who  spake  as 
never  man  spake,  I  wonder  more  and  more  if  the  church  has 
fully  conceived  her  mission  in  the  world.  He  spoke  often  and 
much  about  the  Kingdom  of  God  and  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven. 
He  spoke  seldom  and  little  about  the  church. 

When  the  church,  in  its  ideals  and  activities,  has  moved  for¬ 
ward  into  the  fuller  meaning  of  the  Kingdom,  as  it  was  in  the 
mind  of  Jesus;  when  nothing  that  touches  humanity  is  alien  to 
Christian  concern;  when  we  cease  to  consider  the  work-a-day 
affairs  of  men  as  common  and  unclean;  when  life  and  Up  are  in 
sweet  accord  in  Christian  civilization;  when  the  followers  of 
Christ  really  love  mercy,  do  justly  and  walk  humbly  with  God, 
then  His  Kingdom  will  cover  the  earth  as  the  waters  cover  the 
sea  Then  will  the  church  cease  to  serve  strangers  in  a  land 
which  is  not  yet  her  own  ;  then  she  may  claim  the  heathen  for 


3 


an  inheritance,  and  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth  for  a  pos¬ 
session. 

What  is  barely  suggested  here,  in  preliminary  way,  you  will 
find  in  the  large  and  at  length  in  Batten’s  Social  Task  of  Chris¬ 
tianity,  in  Rauschenbusch’s  Christianity  and  the  Social  Crisis,  in 
the  books  of  Josiah  Strong,  Patten,  Peabody  and  many  others 
who  are  glimpsing  the  Kingdom  in  new  and  inspiring  ways. 

2.  The  Importance  of  the  Country  Church.  More  and 
more  our  modern  industrial  city  civilization  preempts  interest 
and  attention.  But  we  cannot  safely  blink  the  fundamental  im¬ 
portance  of  our  rural  civilization  Undoubtedly  the  city  is  the 
final  challenge  to  Christianity;  but  the  country  church  is  the  re¬ 
cruiting  station  for  the  warfare,  It  has  always  been  so.  “The 
cities  cannot  be  relied  upon  to  furnish  the  Christian  leaders  of 
the  future.  The  work  of  the  church  in  the  country  districts 
must  be  carried  on  with  efficiency  and  power  in  order  to  insure 
the  raisins  up  of  sufficient  Christian  forces  to  cultivate  the  city 
fields.” 

John  R.  Mott,  from  whom  I  have  quoted,  sees  clearly  that 
the  life  and  well-being  of  the  church  in  the  city  is  dependent 
upon  the  life  and  well-being  of  the  church  in  the  countryside. 
Five-sixths  of  the  ministers  and  six-sevenths  of  the  college 
professors  of  America  were  born  and  reared  in  the  country,  says 
Ashenhurst 

Three-fourths  of  the  men  in  authority  in  our  city  churches 
were  bred  and  ‘buttered’  in  the  rural  regions;  and  the  same  ra¬ 
tio  is  nearlv  true  of  the  successful,  influential  men  of  affairs, 
the  merchants  and  manufacturers,  the  bankers  and  lawyers.  I 
may  add  that  twenty-six  of  the  twenty-seven  presidents  of  the 
United  States  were  country  born. 

The  cities  are  dependent  upon  the  countryside  for  population, 
for  the  renewal  of  population,  for  business,  for  business  genius, 
for  civic  and  social  conscience,  and  for  spiritual  guidance.  If 
the  cities  were  not  re-enforced  from  the  fields,  said  Emerson, 
they  would  have  rotted,  exploded,  and  disappeared  long  ago. 
Fat  cities  and  a  lean  countr}7side  will  mean  in  the  end  the  decay 
of  the  country  school  and  the  country  church,  the  two  great 
country-life  defenses;  and  the  decay  of  rural  civilization  will 
imperil  our  national  well-being. 

What,  therefore,  is  the  status  of  the  country  church,  what 
forces,  are  insidiously  threatening  its  efficiency,  even  its  very 
existence,  here  and  there? 

3.  The  Status  of  the  Country  Church  began  to  arouse  in¬ 
terest  thirty  }7ears  ago.  In  1890,  five  counties  of  New  York 
state  were  exhaustively  studied,  two  in  the  central  part  of  the 
state,  and  one  in  each  of  the  three  lobes.  Many  Protestant 


4 


churches  were  seen  falling  into  decay,  or  abandoned  long  since 
to  bats  and  brickbats.  In  one  village  the  investigators  found 
two  disused  Protestant  churches,  one  active  Catholic  church, 
and  fourteen  saloons,  all  within  the  distance  of  a  quarter  of  a 
mile.  In  another  town  they  found  a  Presbyterian  church  used 
as  a  barn,  a  Baptist  church  abandoned,  two  Methodist  churches 
almost  extinct,  and  a  Baptist  Seminary  used  as  a  Catholic 
church;  while  on  the  Erie  Canal  for  eight  miles  were  found 
scattered  hamlets  containing  altogether  a  considerable  population 
with  no  religious  services  of  any  kind  from  one  year’s  end  to 
another.  And  the  report  states  that  these  five  counties  are 
fairly  representative  of  the  rural  districts  of  New  York  state. 

Similar  studies  have  since  been  made  of  country-life  condi¬ 
tions  in  all  the  New  England  states,  in  Ohio  and  Pennsylvania, 
and  recently  in  the  state  of  Illinois.  Bev.  M.  B.  McNutt  re¬ 
ported  last  July  to  the  Rural  Life  Conference  in  Lansing,  Mich., 
that  there  were  ten  thousand  dead  rural  churches  in  Illinois;  ten 
thousand  more  about  to  die;  and  five  hundred  already  abandoned. 

But  what  is  the  status  of  the  country  church  in  the  South, 
and  in  Georgia? 

One  of  the  great  religious  denominations  of  the  South,  con¬ 
sisting  of  thirty-five  hundred  churches,  has  one  thousand  thirty- 
two  churches  without  pastors,  mainly  country  churches.  Last 
year  sixteen  hundred  of  the  churches  had  no  additions  by  con¬ 
fession  of  faith.  In  four  Southern  states,  the  churches  of  this 
denomination  suffered  a  net  loss  of  nearly  1500  members.  This 
church  is  losing  its  grip  upon  the  country-life  problem.  As 
might  be  expected,  therefore,  there  were  fewer  graduates  from 
her  seminaries  last  year,  and  fewer  candidates  for  the  ministry 
among  the  graduates  of  her  church  colleges. 

Only  just  the  other  day  I  happened  to  stumble  into  the  report 
of  a  group  of  forty-one  churches  in  middle  Georgia.  Twenty 
of  these  churches  are  without  Sunday  Schools.  Nineteen  of 
them  gave  nothing  to  missions  last  year.  One  of  the  churches, 
a  city  church,  gave  78  per  cent  of  the  whole  amount  contrib¬ 
uted  to  missions  by  this  group.  Seven  churches  are  without  pas¬ 
tors.  Six  churches  pay  for  preaching  less  than  $90  a  year,  one 
of  them  only  $70.00.  Twenty  of  these  churches  report  no  new 

members  by  profession  of  faith. 

I  then  began  to  study  conditions  closer  home.  Choosing  at 
random  I  found  a  group  of  thirty-three  churches  in  North  Geor¬ 
gia,  ten  of  which  had  no  Sunday  Schools;  eleven  no  pastors, 
and  five  of  them  pastors  temporarily  supplied.  Nine  of  these 
churches  with  two  hundred  seventy- six  members  gave  nothing 
to  missions;  eleven  of  them  gave  nothing  to  foreign  missions; 
twelve  nothing  to  home  missions;  seventeen  nothing  to  negio 


evangelization;  and  twenty  of  the  thirty-three  Sunday  Schools 
nothing  to  Sunday  School  extension.  Thirteen  of  the  churches 
report  no  new  members  by  profession  of  faith.  One  church  of 
this  group,  a  city  church,  gave  66  per  cent  of  the  total  amount 
raised  for  foreign  missions. 

Diligent  inquiry  among  ministers  of  all  sects  and  sorts  brings 
the  uniform  response  that  these  two  groups  of  churches  are 
fairly  representative  of  the  country  church  everywhere. 

These  ominous  facts  pertinently  raise  the  question  of  whether 
the  country  church  is  growing  in  efficiency  or  dwindling  in  effort 
and  influence. 

Is  the  country  church  more  and  more,  or  less  and  less,  a 
problem  as  the  years  go  on;  and  what  causes  imperil  its  useful¬ 
ness  and  existence? 

4.  The  flenaces  to  the  Country  Church  are,  first  of  all, 
economic.  The  race  is  moving  steadily  and  surely  into  a  new 
era.  It  is  an  era  of  industrial  city  civilization,  anti  the  move¬ 
ment  is  a  world-wide  movement.  It  is  the  result  of  applied  sci¬ 
ence,  the  invention  of  labor  saving  machinery,  and  the  develop¬ 
ment  of  facilities  for  transportation  and  distribution. 

There  is  a  steady  drift  of  country  population  city- ward.  Thus 
five  states  of  the  Union  (New  Hampshire,  Connecticut,  Ohio, 
Iowa,  and  Missouri)  show  an  actual  loss  of  country  population, 
in  the  last  decade.  In  six  other  states  the  cities  grew  from  ten 
to  forty-one  times  faster  than  the  country  population.  Through¬ 
out  the  entire  United  States  the  growth  of  city  population  was 
nearly  four  times  greater  than  the  growth  of  country  population 

In  Georgia  the  growth  of  city  population  was  three  and  a  half 
times  greater  than  the  growth  of  country  population.  Twenty- 
five  counties  of  the  state  lost  population  during  the  last  decade. 
Two  of  these  lost  nearly  one- third  of  their  entire  population.  In 
forty-one  counties  of  the  state  the  gain  was  less  than  the  natu¬ 
ral  increase  by  birth.  One  of  these  counties  gained  just  twelve 
and  another  just  thirty-four  people  in  the  ten  years.  Thus  there 
are  sixty-six  counties  in  the  state  that  have  either  lost  popula¬ 
tion  or  have  marked  time  during  the  last  ten  years.  These  coun¬ 
ties  may  well  look  to  their  country-life  defenses,  especially  to 
improved  public  highways,  better  schools,  and  more  liberally 
supported  churches. 

Now,  the  loss  of  population  by  a  community  or  county  me¬ 
naces  every  business  and  social  interest  in  it.  Stores  and  dwell¬ 
ings  become  vacant,  rents  decline,  trade  drops  off,  land  values 
decrease,  tenants  become  restless  and  vagrant,  schools  and 
churches  dwindle,  life  and  enterprise  drop  into  stagnation  and 
decay.  Witness  the  two  hundred  and  eighty-two  pastorless 
country  churches  in  Maine,  many  of  them  used  as  cheese  facto- 


0 


ries,  road  houses,  and  dance  halls.  Witness  the  million,  two 
hundred  thousand  acres  of  abandoned  farm  land  in  New  York 
state.  Witness  the  deca}r  of  manhood  in  Adams  county,  Ohio. 
Witness,  in  Iowa,  the  twenty-five  hundred  country  schools  in 
which  the  average  attendance  has  dwindled  to  ten  pupils  or  fewer. 

In  Georgia,  we  have  three  counties  containing  fewer  than  ten 
people  to  the  square  mile,  one  of  these  less  than  five;  and  yet 
one  county  of  this  group  has  a  smaller  population  to-day  than  it 
had  ten  years  ago.  In  many  counties  of  Georgia,  it  takes  more 
than  thirty  square  miles  to  furnish  enough  white  children  to 
maintain  a  country  school.  One  of  our  students  taught  last  year 
in  a  county  eleven  miles  away  from  the  nearest  church. 

In  one  county  there  are  so  few  people  living  on  and  cultivating 
their  own  farms  that  they  have  abandoned  in  despair  all  thought 
of  improved  public  highways,  and  in  self-defense  have  at  last 
come  together  to  build  a  good  public  highway  as  a  private  en¬ 
terprise. 

In  another  group  of  nine  counties,  the  tenant  whites  have 
moved  into  the  nearby  cotton  mill  center  and  the  land-owners 
have  left  the  country  to  secure  better  church  and  school  advan¬ 
tages.  The  country  civilization  of  these  counties  has  been  aban¬ 
doned  for  the  most  part  to  negro  tenant-farmers  and  to  negro 
civilization,  such  as  it  is.  It  goes  without  saying  that  in  such 
counties  as  these  country  schools  and  councry  churches  have 
dropped  into  decay,  and  when  you  look  straight  at  human-life 
conditions  here  you  are  appalled  and  staggered  at  the  social  prob¬ 
lems  that  present  themselves. 

Increasing  sparsity  of  population  means  increasing  loneliness 
and  drudgery  and  monotony  in  the  farm  regions;  decreasing  abil¬ 
ity  to  maintain  schools  and  churches,  and  increasing  illiteracy  and 
immorality.  For  instance,  in  one  of  these  sparsely  settled  coun¬ 
ties  a  man  swaps  his  daughter  for  his  neighbor’s  wife  and  gives 
potatoes  to-boot  in  the  trade;  all  without  consideration  of  civil 
or  ecclesiastical  forms.  And  this  is  not  a  mountain  county, 
either. 

The  other  day  a  minister  told  me  that  he  had  recently  visited 
one  of  his  old  country  churches;  a  church  which  aforetime  was 
strong  in  members  and  spiritual  influence,  but  which  now  has 
been  abandoned  by  the  nearby  land-owners,  who  have  moved  away 
into  the  towns.  The  remaining  large  farmer,  the  leading  o  flicial 
in  the  church,  was  found  leading  a  life  of  gross  immorality  in  his 
home,  while  the  church  has  dwindled  into  insignificance  or  some¬ 
thing  worse. 

5.  Decreasing’  Farm  Ownership  and  Increasing  Tenancy. 

And  this  leads  me  to  say  that  another  economic  cause  is  threat¬ 
ening  the  usefulness  of  the  country  church,  even  its  very  exists 

O 


7 


ence.  It  is  the  steadily  decreasing  ratio  of  farms  occupied  and 
tilled  by  the  men  that  own  them.  The  increase  of  landless  farm¬ 
ers  in  Georgia  is  alarming.  In  1900,  three  of  every  five  farms 
in  our  state  were  cultivated  by  tenants;  in  1910  the  ratio  was  two 
in  every  three;  in  forty-five  counties,  seven  in  every  ten;  in  four¬ 
teen  counties,  eight  in  every  ten;  and  in  one  county,  nine  in 
every  ten. 

Imagine,  if  you  can,  the  social  outlook  for  farm  civilization  in 
sixty  of  our  counties  where  seven  or  more  farmers  in  every  ten 
are  landless  and  homeless.  And  the  problem  is  further  compli 
cated  by  the  fact  that  this  population  is  transient,  for  the  most 
part.  They  are  brief  sojourners  in  the  community.  In  the  best 
communities,  the  entire  tenant  population  changes  almost  wholly 
every  three  years.  Upon  an  average,  in  the  entire  South,  three 
of  every  four  renters  every  year  move  to  new  places  in  other 
neighborhoods  or  counties. 

In  the  very  nature  of  things  they  lack  abiding  interest  in  bet¬ 
ter  methods,  better  business,  and  better  living  on  the  farm;  in 
progressive  community  enterprises;  in  good  roads,  good  schools, 
and  good  churches.  Industrious,  thrifty,  prosperous,  stable  com¬ 
munity  life  is  rooted  and  grounded  in  the  home-owning,  home- 
loving,  home-defending  instinct.  It  augurs  ill  for  Georgia  that 
the  farms  cultivated  by  owners  fell  from  55  to  34  in  the  hun¬ 
dred,  during  the  last  thirty  years! 

But  the  dwindling  ratio  of  farm-  and  home-ownership  is  not 
peculiar  to  Georgia.  It  is  true  of  almost  every  state  in  the 
Union.  In  1900,  almost  exactly  one-half  of  all  the  people  of 
the  United  States  were  landless  and  homeless,  and  the  number  of 
those  that  have  no  stake  in  the  land  grows  alarmingly  greater 
from  decade  to  decade. 

When  our  civilization  is  bottomed,  like  England’s,  upon  land 
ownership  by  the  few  and  land  orphanage  for  the  many,  then  we 
shall  be  confronted  by  problems  that  stagger  education  and  re¬ 
ligion,  the  church  and  the  state  alike. 

Almost  everything  is  possible  in  a  community  or  county  or 
country  whose  population  consists  of  a  large  number  of  small 
land-owners,  instead  of  a  small  number  of  large  land-owners. 

Isaiah  saw  clearly  the  social  ills  that  follow  “the  joining  of 
house  to  house  and  the  laying  of  field  to  field  ’.  But  never  in 
my  life  have  I  heard  a  sermon  from  that  text,  by  any  minister  in 
any  pulpit  whatsoever.  Everywhere  we  need  the  social  instinct 
and  interest  and  insight  of  this  prophet  of  old;  and  never  more 
than  now  in  seventy-three  counties  of  this  state. 

Is  this  a  gloomy  summary  of  conditions  and  causes?  If  so, 
then  I  may  say  that  it  is  my  profound  belief  that  we  shall  never 
be  adequately7  motived,  never  under  a  great  headway  of  patriotic 


and  spiritual  fervor,  until  we  have  comprehended  our  problem 
and  see  clearly  the  obstacles  upon  the  one  hand  and  the  ideals 
and  opportunities  upon  the  other. 

It  was  Nehemiah’s  way.  You  may  recall  that  he  insisted  upon 
knowing  his- task  in  detail  before  he  set  his  hand  to  it.  In  the 
darkness  of  the  night  he  left  the  city  by  the  valley  gate  and 
went  about  the  broken-down  defenses  of  Jerusalem;  in  many 
places,  I  dare  say.  upon  his  very  hands  and  knees.  It  will  not 
do,  as  we  give  ourselves  to  the  task  of  creating  an  effective,  sat¬ 
isfying  rural  civilization,  to  be  less  wise  or  less  brave  than  Nehe- 
miah.  In  no  otherwise  shall  we  escape  being  inept,  inapt,  and 
futile  in  our  efforts. 

6.  The  Country  Church  Needs  a  New  Ideal,  in  order  to 
grow  in  efficiency  as  a  country  life  defense.  It  must  still  be  a 
center  for  community  worship:  it  must  become  the  center  of  so¬ 
cial  service. 

For  instance,  it  must  generously  mother  the  nearby  public 
school,  and  fervently  concern  itself  in  behalf  of  better  buildings, 
better  fixtures,  furnitures,  and  equipments,  longer  terms,  better 
teachers,  and  better  teaching,  rewarded  by  better  salaries. 

Sometime  ago  1  spoke  tc  a  great  audience  in  the  old  Mt.  Zion 
camp- meeting  tabernacle  in  middle  Georgia.  For  seventy-five 
years  the  nearby  da3T-school  has  been  under  the  drippings  of  the 
sanctuary  there.  But  I  found  that  school  “a  ragged  beggar  by 
the  wa}'side  sunning”;  and  I  said  to  my  audience,  Not  yet  is 
Mt.  Zion  the  glory  of  all  the  earth! 

I  believe  with  all  my  heart  that  public  education  in  Georgia 
will  be  a  vain  and  unavailing  task  until  the  church  comes  up  to 
the  help  of  the  State,  against  ignorance  and  illiteracy,  narrow¬ 
ness  and  superstition.  Otherwise  we  must  always  bewail  the 
fact  that  the  people  perish  for  lack  of  knowledge. 

The  teachers  in  the  public  school  must  be  busy  in  the  neigh¬ 
boring  Sunday  School  and  church;  but  the  pastor  and  his  official 
board  need  to  cherish  and  nourish,  support  and  sustain  the 
neighboring  day-school.  Denominational  differences  and  jeal- 
ouses  must  disappear,  in  a  sweet  conspiracy  for  the  well-being 
of  the  children  of  the  community. 

And  this  better  day  is  breaking  here  and  there.  At  a  country 
Methodist  church  in  Paulding  county  I  found  the  public  school 
located  near  the  church,  as  is  usually  the  case  all  over  the  state. 
A  Presbyterian  teacher  taught  the  children  in  the  day-school 
during  the  week  and  the  same  children  in  the  church  on  Sunday. 
One  day  of  the  quarterly  conference  was  given  entirely  to  a  dis¬ 
cussion  of  country-life  conditions,  good  roads,  school  libraries, 
public  sanitation  and  better  public,  schools,  and  not  to  sermons 
or  conueclional  schools  at  all! 


The  pastor  and  presiding  elder  are  men  of  understanding  and 
vision ;  both  young,  virile  and  vigorous,  and  both  of  them 
crowned  with  the  charms  and  gifts  and  graces  of  rare  spiritual¬ 
ity.  May  God  multiply  their  kind  abundantly  in  the  earth! 

The  country  church  and  the  country  school  ought  together  to 
be  the  center  of  community  life  and  activities — vocational,  rec¬ 
reational  and  spiritual.  Together  they  ought  to  organize  and 
develop  the  garden  club,  the  corn  club,  the  mother’s  club,  the 
reading  circle  and  the  neighborhood  library;  but  also  they  must 
develop  and  direct  the  recreational  life  of  the  country  regions. 
The  all-day  singing  so  common  all  over  the  state  is  the  manifes¬ 
tation  of  a  wholesome  social  instinct.  This  instinct  does  not 
need  to  be  opposed  or  suppressed;  it  does  need  to  be  captured 
and  skilfully  directed  to  better  ends 

We  have  long  heard  the  cry  for  re-directed  country  schools. 
The  need  is  even  more  urgent  for  re-directed  country  churches. 
The  DuPage  country  church  in  Illinois  is  just  such  a  church.  It 
is  easy  to  see  that  it  is  a  mighty  country-life  defense.  You  will 
find  a  full  account  of  it  in  the  World's  Work,  September  and 
December,  1910. 

7.  A  Home  for  the  Country  Pastor.  But  the  country 
church  will  fall  short  short  of  its  possible  efficiency  unless  there 
be  alongside  it,  or  in  the  immediate  neighborhood,  a  home  for 
the  pastor.  How  else  can  he  have  part  and  lot  in  the  fortunes 
of  his  people,  and  become  keenly,  sympathetically  aware  of  com¬ 
munity  conditions  and  needs?  How  otherwise  can  he  shepherd 
his  flock  daily  and  minister  to  their  comfort  and  necessities  in 
sickness  and  in  health?  Or  nurse  his  Sunday  School,  or  have  an 
active,  ever-present  interest  in  the  children  in  the-day-school? 

How  can  an  absentee  preacher,  who  lives  apart  and  away  from 
his  charge,  in  the  county-site  town,  or  in  another  county,  hope 
to  make  his  church  the  center  of  the  occupational,  recreational 
and  spiritual  life  of  the  community?  He  can  be  a  preacher,  but 
can  he  be  a  minister  or  a  pastor?  He  can  plant,  but  can  he 
water?  He  can  point  to  heaven,  but  can  he  lead  the  way? 

There  are  thousands  of  prosperous  country  communities  in 
Georgia  abundantly  able  to  furnish  comfortable  homes  for  the 
minister,  and  thus  make  efficient  the  mightiest  of  all  agencies  in 
checking  the  forces  of  country-life  decay.  But,  after  diligent  in¬ 
quiry  these  last  thirteen  months,  I  have  been  able  to  find  in 
Georgia  only  two  country  churches  with  resident  ministers, 
snugly  settled  in  the  country,  in  church  homes.  The  possible 
efficiencies  of  the  country  church  will  never  be  fully  realized  oth¬ 
erwise. 

On  the  other  hand  I  find  hundreds  of  country  churches  paying 
less  than  $100  a  year  to  the  preacher  for  sermons  once  or  twice 


10 


a  month;  many  of  them  less  than  $75,  some  less  than  $50.  In 
one  of  the  most  prosperous  country  communities  of  the  state  I 
found  the  preacher  getting  only  $60  a  year.  He  is  obliged  to 
be  both  blacksmith  and  farmer  in  order  to  keep  his  soul  and 
body  together.  His  people  grip  their  purses  in  tight  fists  while 
they  pray  the  Lord  ‘to  give  him  souls  for  his  hire.’  They  prom¬ 
ise  to  keep  him  poor,  if  the  good  Lord  will  only  keep  him  humble. 

The  people  of  this  and  many  another  country  community  in 
Georgia  could  easily  contribute  twenty  times  the  amount  they 
are  now  giving  to  church  support.  And  they  would  do  it,  if 
only  they  could  be  aroused  to  realize  the  potencies  and  possibili¬ 
ties  of  the  church  that  is  growing  into  the  fuller  meaning  of  the 
Kingdom. 

8.  A  node!  Country  Pastor.  And  this  leads  me  to  say, 
in  conclusion,  that  always  in  the  pinches  and  crises  of  human 
affairs,  God  raises  up  a  leader.  Such  a  man  was  John  Frederick 
Oberlin,  who  a  century  ago  rescued  the  minds  and  bodies  as  well 
as  the  souls  of  his  wretched  little  country  parish,  by  a  life  in¬ 
formed  with  the  mind  of  the  Master.  His  preparation  for  his 
task,  his  spirit,  his  many-sided  interests  and  activities,  his  sym¬ 
pathetic  adjustability  and  adaptability,  his  simplicity,  his  swift 
directness  of  aim,  his  unflagging,  unfailing  courage,  patience 
and  hopefulness,  his  intense  practicality  and  rare  spirituality 
almost  perfectly  indicate  just  what  the  modern  mission  worker 
or  country  minister  must  know  and  be  and  do  in  a  rural  commu¬ 
nity,  or  any  other,  if  he  would  win  it  for  the  Kingdom. 

His  charge  was  the  Ban-de-la-ftoche,  a  poverty-stricken  little 
valley  in  the  Vosges  mountains.  His  call  to  it  was  a  challenge 
charged  with  such  hardship  and  suffering  as  Garibaldi  offered  to 
his  volunteers;  but  he  accepted  it,  and  for  nearly  sixty  years  he 
lived  and  labored  among  his  chosen  people,  for  sweet  love’s 
sake.  He  found  his  little  mountain  cove  as  wretched  as  an  Irish 
pigsty;  he  left  it  swept  and  garnished,  renovated  and  reclaimed 
to  the  last  inch. 

His  ideal  of  service  kept  him  long  at  the  task  of  preparation. 
At  eighteen  he  took  his  Bachelor’s  degree  at  the  University  of 
Strasburg.  Five  years  later  he  won  his  doctorate  degree  in  phi¬ 
losophy;  but  still  he  lingered  for  richer  scholarship.  Then  for 
three  years  he  studied  medicine  and  surgery  while  tutoring  in 
the  family  of  a  noted  physician.  Meanwhile,  he  studied  botany 
in  the  fields  with  the  children. 

His  first  service  in  his  parish  was  not  a  sermon  but  the  build¬ 
ing  of  a  school  house.  A  hundred  years  ago  Oberlin’s  school 
children  were  learning  botany  and  agriculture,  civics,  manual 
arts  and  music,  indeed,  most  of  the  things  we  struggle  so  hard 
to  get  into  the  country  schools  to-day.  After  awhile  his  wife 


went  down  into  the  lowland  to  learn  various  cottage  industries. 
Upon  her  return  she  moved  about  from  home  to  home  and  taught 
them  to  his  people. 

He  preached,  to  be  sure,  but  also  he  served  like  a  common 
hand  in  building  the  new  public  road  and  bridge  the}'  so  much 
needed  for  contact  with  the  outer  world.  He  organized  agri¬ 
cultural  clubs.  He  kept  them  alive  and  active  throughout  his 
entire  life.  He  wrote  all  over  Europe  to  procure  the  flax,  the 
wheat,  the  clover,  the  potatoes,  and  the  fruit  trees  that  would 
live  and  produce  profitably  in  that  inhospitable  climate.  He 
taught  them  irrigation,  drainage,  sanitation — or  anything  else 
they  urgently  needed  to  know.  He  was  preacher,  minister,  pas¬ 
tor,  farmer,  physician,  cobler,  carpenter  and  printer;  but  also 
prophet,  priest,  and  king  in  his  little  dominion. 

His  religion  was  the  gospel  of  social  as  well  as  spiritual  regen¬ 
eration;  and  we  need  just  such  a  gospel  to  day  everywhere:  just 
such  understanding  and  vision  in  our  preachers  and  missionaries. 

Mr.  Koosevelt  reminds  us  that  our  country  civilization  is  vi 
tally  related  to  national  well-being;  but  also  he  warns  us  that 
country- life  decay  is  our  gravest  national  problem.  The  coun¬ 
try  church,  if  it  rightly  conceive  its  mission,  is  our  mightiest 
country-life  defense.  Therefore  the  work  of  the  church,  in  our 
rural  fields,  cannot  safely  be  left  to  the  aged,  the  infirm,  the  un¬ 
trained,  the  unattractive,  the  uninspiring,  the  dull  or  coni  mon¬ 
place  worker,  whom  the  city  churches  reject  and  who  must  be 
placed  elsewhere,  ft  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  such  a  policy 
is  stupid  and  suicidal. 

9.  The  defending,  the  preserving,  and  the  enriching  of  our 
farm  civilization  calls  for  men  of  God  who  study  social  condi¬ 
tions  with  the  insight  and  foresight  of  Isaiah  of  old.  But  it 
also  calls  for  teachers  who  read  and  think  and  serve  their  fel¬ 
lows  far  beyond  the  walls  of  their  schoolrooms;  tor  physicians 
who  campaign  public  health  and  hygiene  as  faithfully  and  as 
earnestly  as  they  battle  with  death  in  their  private  practice;  and 
for  business  men,  editors,  and  statesmen  who  are  brave  enougli 
and  wise  enough  to  “turn  a, keen  untroubled  eye  home  upon  the 
instant  need  of  things.” 

“The  mission  call  is  a  call  to  make  the  world  a  brighter  world 
for  children  to  he  born  into,  safer  for  boys  and  girls  to  grow  up 
in,  happier  for  men  to  travel  through,  and  more  joyous  for  de¬ 
parting  saints  to  look  back  upon . The  Kingdom  of 

God  may  well  mean  much  more  than  this;  but  it  is  certain  that 
it  can  never  mean  less.” 


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